Credit goes to Bob Wojnowski for getting the highly sought after role of playing Barbara Walters when Red Wings Owner Chris Ilitch decided to share his vision for the future of the Red Wings organization.
There is no video for the interview, and while Wojo indicated it was a 45 minute conversation, the questions read as if they were answered via email or chat, with no follow up. So while this is progress, it doesn’t suggest Chris Ilitch has any interest in providing insight into what has transpired with his franchise over the past year or so, as the Winged Wheel Podcast hosts suggested Steve Yzerman nearly stepped down following the 2024-25 season.
We’ll get to that in a bit.
Here are my takeaways after parsing the tea leaves from The Detroit News interview with the Red Wings’ owner.
Chris Ilitch has a Clear Vision
When asked about skepticism from the fanbase, Ilitch responded that he has a clear vision and knows exactly where he plans to take the organization.
His plan — using his own words — is to find an innovative difference-maker who can build a championship-caliber organization.
Ilitch gave some insight into what he means when he says innovative, saying: analytics are certainly a big part of it, but there's so much more about sports science, in player development and injury prevention.
Interestingly, these were all areas Jeff Greenberg hit on when he interviewed for the Chicago Blackhawks job, which only makes me feel more inclined to believe he was the original target to lead the hockey ops department. Of course we’ll never know what went on for that month or so when he was reported to be involved with the process.
Ilitch further illustrated his point by highlighting areas where the organization has innovated in the past, for instance the heavy reliance on European players before the rest of the league caught on to the quality of prospects coming out of Sweden and Russia in particular.
I have to be honest and comment that — given the reporting indicating Yzerman was giving off ‘no mas’ vibes a little over a year ago — it’s reasonable to be skeptical about the organization’s ability to find this leader Chris Ilitch has in mind.
The Detroit News’ AI video highlight for the interview indicates there were over 100 candidates, and Ilitch commented that the interest and response has been phenomenal. He also disputes reporting that the organization did not interview people with whom they were granted the right to do so. His wording here is a bit open to interpretation as he says ‘we spoke to’ rather than ‘interviewed’.
Ilitch would have you believe everything was handled perfectly and went absolutely amazing, 10/10, no notes. Yet here he is, talking up his interim GM who clearly wasn’t the guy until they absolutely needed a guy.
Ilitch writes off criticism of a search that has gone poorly while bypassing traditional timelines by saying we're being very selective, and we're focused on getting it right.
Larkin’s Trade Request
It doesn’t require much parsing to understand Chris Ilitch’s view here: it doesn’t read as if Shawn Horcoff will be expected to trade Larkin, with a trade most likely to occur whenever Ilitch eventually fills out his hockey operations leadership group.
Horcoff however will be expected to sign Simon Edvinsson and Alex DeBrincat to new deals.
Todd McLellan received support from Ilitch, but the owner indicated the bench boss’ future will be determined by the eventual hockey ops team.
Yzerman’s Removal
I’m going to be frank: this part doesn’t and never has passed the smell test. When asked about the delay when it came to removing Yzerman, Ilitch offers up a rationale for the delay in making the decision:
Well on Jan. 26, 2026, the Detroit Red Wings had the fourth-best record in the NHL, and making a change was not on my radar whatsoever.
After the team’s slide through the spring, we started studying potential root causes, and I wanted to be comprehensive. So we executed an organizational performance review of each area…
-Chris Ilitch on how he came to decide to move on from Steve Yzerman as GM
A great follow up question would have been ‘can you tell us who was involved with that organizational performance review? Of course it likely would have been met with a non-answer, but if Ilitch landed on the fact he needed a more innovative hockey ops department — a very reasonable outcome, by the way — it would be great to have some insight into how that process played out given it followed a timeline that prevented them from interviewing several candidates who landed GM jobs.
It would also be appreciated if we gained some insight into the timing once the decision was made to move on from Yzerman. Reporting on Turnkey ZRG’s involvement in the hiring process came three weeks after the announcement of the decision to remove Yzerman as GM.
Simply put, the timing has never added up. To do something that falls astray of common best practices and results in you hiring an interim GM on September 15th is naturally going to lead to skepticism on how your process was handled.
Some Sizzle, but Precious Little Steak
On the surface, Chris Ilitch’s comments sound good. As he explains it, Steve Yzerman attempted a traditional rebuild, and while it got the team close to playoff position, it’s time to pass the baton to someone who is innovative and can unlock a level we haven’t seen from the franchise in over 15 years.
There’s been reporting that indicates Yzerman was ready to vacate his role 16 months ago, yet the organization had to take 3 months from the final game of the season to decide to move on from him, long after several general manager openings across the league had been filled.
Despite this delay, we are being told there was overwhelming interest in the position and the organization is said to have conducted a thorough search. No stone was left unturned. 9 week later, however, they were forced to hold on to Shawn Horcoff as their interim general manager.
Since this is all we are going to get for the time being, I’ll dust off a 90s cultural reference from back when the Red Wings were becoming one of the best organizations in North American sports.
